The Transformation of Rural Labour Systems in Colonial and Post-Colonial Northern Nigeria

Kohnert, Dirk (1986): The Transformation of Rural Labour Systems in Colonial and Post-Colonial Northern Nigeria. Published in: Journal of Peasant Studies , Vol. 13, No. 4 (1986): pp. 258-271.

Abstract

The study attempts to highlight the interrelation between three central points in the ongoing debate on the political economy of development: viability, surplus, and class-formation. A case study of the develop¬ment of rural labour systems in Northern Nigeria is meant to provide both a better qualitative and quantitative idea of this interrelation. After an analysis of the socio-economic effects of forced and bonded labour during colonial times, the articulation of different systems of family and non-family labour has been investigated. Class-specific effects of labour and capital input do even result in an increasing use of communal labour by rich and middle peasants after the Nigerian Civil War: its form remains, but its content changes fundamentally. The socio-economic and material base for small-scale peasant subsistence production has been gradually destroyed.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: political economy of development; labour systems; rural areas; economic history; Africa; colonialism; Nigeria
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J8 - Labor Standards: National and International > J81 - Working Conditions; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination; N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy > N37 - Africa ; Oceania; P - Economic Systems > P4 - Other Economic Systems > P48 - Political Economy ; Legal Institutions ; Property Rights ; Natural Resources ; Energy ; Environment ; Regional Studies; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification; K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K31 - Labor Law; F - International Economics > F5 - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy > F54 - Colonialism ; Imperialism ; Postcolonialism; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P16 - Political Economy; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J43 - Agricultural Labor Markets; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility ; Immigrant Workers; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J8 - Labor Standards: National and International > J83 - Workers' Rights; P - Economic Systems > P5 - Comparative Economic Systems > P52 - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies

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